"Do not go drinking with this man. You will end up somewhere you were not planning to go..."

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Thursday, 12 July 2012

Whittingham Asylum - July 2012

A drive over to Chingle Hall, the most haunted house in England, that was Urban Spaceman's idea, trouble is Chingle Hall is no longer open to the public. It didn't look very menacing when we parked up to be honest (on what is now someones drive). The owner smiled and told us sorry - he must get loads of people bothering him when he's mowing his lawn every Sunday afternoon, on reflection possibly the least of his problems if he has a house full of ghosts ????

I went to "check-in" on Facebook that we were at Chingle Hall (for the benefit of my ex-wife as she loves anything spooky - oh yep we are good mates I should add) before my finger went to tap the iPhone the signal dropped dead - nothing.

Waving to the kind gentleman cutting his lawn outside his most haunted house, Urban Spaceman said "Whittingham Asylum then, 2 minutes drive from here". Mr Spaceman has this "thing" about the asylum and off we shot down the Lancashire country roads.

Given that I have flown over it, walked around the outside already, I wasn't that fussed until we spotted that a door was wide open - rude not to pop your head in for a little look around.

Welcome to the asylum !!!!

Mr Spaceman excelled himself with the following "can't believe we are in this place, now watch your step otherwise you'll go thru the floor" at that point he did, a warning and wake up call, Whittingham Asylum is a dump inside.

Thrashed by the vandals and metal thieves, many areas are open to the elements as the place sits stuck in planning limbo for years since its closure in 1995.

Time had taken its toll on this Victorian asylum and well the pictures do sadly say it all.

We carefully wandered the corridors for about 2 hours, up steps, down steps, "errrr are we lost, can you remember where we got in ?"

Within the vast sprawling corridors we came across the entrance to the concert hall and ball room, Spaceman quickly made for the stage, for this his one and only performance of a lifetime.

Watertight, this room had a cavernous feel, sadly it did have a desk sized hole in the floor which had been undoubtedly been caused by some would be arsonist.

The room did however have some nice touches, left alone by the vandals.

We moved on thru the building but then choosing not to push our luck we decided to call it a day and head back and grab a few pictures on the way back to the exit. I'm sure we have not traversed half its corridors nor seen many of its rooms and wards, but a couple of hours in a crumbling wreck of building was enough.

So that was Whittingham Asylum, we arrived a few years late, we didn't do the whole place by half, but will we return ? I doubt it, it was the "one" Urban Spaceman "had to do" for me my interest had waned last year for some reason.

Thanks for looking and goodnight

- the full collection of pictures, including the aerial shots of the grounds Whittingham Asylum can be found on my Flickr

- oh one last thing, the Chingle Hall iPhone problem, when I got home my Facebook page had listed the "check-in", 5 times, strange I would say considering the thing died before I tapped the screen.....